Service pays tribute to fallen firefighters and law enforcement officials

Timberly Moore, The Commercial Appeal

September 11, 2013 — Memphis Police officer B. White salutes with other officers and fire fighters during a memorial service at the Memphis Fire Museum for the victims of the September 11 terrorist attack. (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal)

The Commercial Appeal

September 11, 2013 — Altruria Elementary students Kate Switzer, Gaby Aguilar, Gracie David, and John Sanders participate in the school’s annual Altruria Elementary School Remembers ceremony in honor of September 11th. The students gathered for a moment of silence, a flag presentation, the Pledge of Allegiance and national anthem. The 5th Note Chorus performed a musical tribute entitled “American Tears” and gifts of appreciation were given to Bartlett Police and Fire Departments. (Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal)

The Commercial Appeal

When Tennessee Task Force One manager Kenneth Reeves arrived at the Pentagon on Sept. 12, 2001 the building was still on fire.

"It was the biggest thing any of us had seen," said Reeves. "The job was enormous. The plane went through three of the Pentagon's five rings."

It took nine 24-hour days to clean up the damage that some predicted would take a month, Reeves said.

"We were all gibbering idiots and we cried all the time," he said. "We had a chaplain assigned to us. We would pray, cry and go back to work. That was every day.

Debris piled up more than 7 feet high around them, Reeves said. The debris consumed the support beams in the building and the task force had to clean it out completely to rebuild the beams so the Pentagon wouldn't collapse.

"You mix an airplane with an office building and that's it, and all the people," Reeves said. "There were more firemen crying than I've seen in all my life."

Twelve years later, Memphians gathered at the Fire Museum downtown as the Memphis Fire and Memphis Police departments honored the nearly 3,000 who died.

Memphis Fire Director Alvin Benson sang "God Bless the U.S.A." before he and Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong placed a wreath at the fire museum memorial to recognize the 343 New York firefighters, 23 New York police officers and 37 Port Authority agents who died after two planes were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center.

A bell was rung during the ceremony, Benson said, to also commemorate 76 firefighters who have died since September 11 as a result of injuries and side effects from the terrorist attacks and the many Americans who lost their lives in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon in Virginia. "We (firefighters) consider ourselves a brotherhood," he said. "We all share a common bond, we have similar concerns and we go through similar experiences. We're an extension of each other."

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., who did not attend the event, issued a press release encouraging people to remember Memphian Gary Lasko, a civilian who died in the collapse of the World Trade Center's first tower.

"We want to remember not only the servicemen and women, but the civilians," Benson said. "Most of the lives that were lost were civilians."

Armstrong wore a commemorative September 11 badge in place of his normal department-issued one. He said members of the department who chose to purchase one will wear them all month.

"We do this to let people, especially the family members of those that lost their lives, know that we haven't forgotten," he said.

Reeves, who played the drums with Wolf River Pipes and Drums during the ceremony, will always remember how the FBI documented every plane fragment and body part found and how the Old Guard would carry them away.

"That right there is the proudest thing I've ever done," he said motioning to a photo of the Pentagon in shambles. "Everybody in the world, everybody in America wanted to do something that day and we were lucky enough to have something we could do."